In the Parliament Building on Thursday afternoon Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church Moran Mor Ignatius Youssef III Yonan. In this context Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister’s Press Chief, informed miniszterelnok.hu that “In relation to persecuted Middle Eastern Christians also, the Hungarian government’s standpoint is that assistance must be taken there, rather than bringing the problem here”.

The meeting was also attended by Minister of Human Capacities Zoltán Balog, Parliamentary State Secretary Bence Rétvári and the Deputy State Secretary responsible for assisting persecuted Christians, Tamás Török. Mr. Havasi said that “The main emphasis was on how Hungary and the international community can provide support so that refugee Christians can dare to return to their homeland and so that basic living conditions can be restored”.

The Patriarch is in Hungary at the invitation of Prime Minister Orbán and is spending several days here; on Wednesday afternoon he gave a lecture at Pázmány Péter Catholic University.